Assad would be a fool not to. Obama has never shown a reluctance to use military power when it's appropriate and in our interests. Ask Khaddify and the Somalian pirates about that.

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LOL! Obama, nor did the U.S., kill Khadaffy and, the Somalian pirates were small potatoes compared to venturing into military conflict with Syria. Syria is going to be more like Iraq was. Let's see if he's got the people surrounding him who were as good as Schwarzkopf and all the rest involved with the beginning of Desert Storm. He can oversee the take out of one guy such as supposedly bin Laden, he can oversee the take out of a small band of Somali pirates and he can send in U.S. military aircraft to conduct a few token missions in Libya but, let's see if he's got the backbone go against a slightly stronger country militarily and, if he's got the people surrounding him who know WTF it is they're doing.

Al-Assad losing control but showing no signs of leavingDecember 13th, 2012 - The Syrian president's control is crumbling at an accelerating pace but the latest assessment by U.S. intelligence finds few indications Bashar al-Assad is willing to step down, according to U.S. officials.

While Obama administration officials have said during the nearly two-year conflict that it appears al-Assad is weakened, the descriptions provided to CNN by U.S. officials familiar with the latest intelligence suggest the Syrian leader's problems have accelerated internally as the opposition continues to capture more territory. "It's at its lowest point yet," said one senior U.S. official with direct knowledge of the latest assessments. U.S. intelligence believes the decline has accelerated in recent weeks. "The trend is moving more rapidly than it has in the past." The officials agreed to talk on the condition their names not be used because they were not authorized to discuss the information with the media.

The description comes as a key Russian official suggested candidly that al-Assad could very well be defeated by the rising opposition fighters. "The regime and the government in Syria are losing more and more control and more and more territory," Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bodganov told a Russian government committee. "Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the victory of the Syrian opposition." The remark was unusually frank from Moscow, given that until very recently Russia had publicly brushed aside suggestions al-Assad was losing control. Still, few think it will lead to a change in Russia's stance to block efforts to force him to leave government.

Obama officials have publicly warned that al-Assad could resort to more drastic means to fight the opposition as he becomes more desperate. Intelligence in recent weeks has found indications the Syrian military was mixing precursors for chemical weapons and loading them into bombs, though after public outcry and warnings from leaders around the globe there were signs that activity has "leveled off," according to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. "But my concern is this: that as the opposition continues to move against the regime, particularly as they move towards Damascus, that if the regime feels that it's in danger of collapsing, that it might very well resort to these kinds of weapons. That's what concerns me the most," Panetta said in an interview this week with CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

This week brought new concerns - that the Syrian military had fired Scud missiles at rebels, according to U.S. officials. The White House spokesman said the use was a sign of al-Assad's "utter depravity" and a U.S. official said it could represent a "growing sense of desperation" by the government. But others within the U.S. government suggest the move might be more tactical than desperate. If al-Assad is trying to keep his aircraft out of the range of opposition's surface-to-air missiles, the Scuds let him fire from much farther away and still reach into opposition territory, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment.

I truly think if Assad feels his back his against the wall and using chemical weapons is his only hope holding onto power he will do it and I don't think the rest of the world will intervene if he does moreover I think he knows this.

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